Fibromyalgia Support Group

You're not alone in your pain. Fibromyalgia is a condition that can be difficult to diagnose and manage. If you're trying to cope with pain throughout your body, sleep problems, general fatigue, or other common fibromyalgia symptoms, you're in the right place. The community is here for you to talk about therapies and share your challenges.

NEED EVERYONE'S HELP!

My friend's hubby has an online newspaper in Abbotsford, BC, Canada. He is wanting to hear our stories about Fibro and chronic pain and will write a fair and accurate portrayal of what we go through.

For today's challenge (I know, late again) :) I'm asking that everyone write to him and create awareness. Be concise on the research, what you do to battle pain and fatigue and just tell your story. This is our chance to get a positive word out there, so I hope everyone can write.

Carrie, I checked out the link, and I'm not sure who we'd be writing to if we did this. I feel this same as Peace. Maybe you can clarify on this, so people can get involved.

Also, I always want to help whenever I can, but my FM is complicated with a lot of other health issues. This disqualifies me from Research Studies, and such, since I don't just have FM and FM- related health issues.

He is the owner and the editor and his name is Michael Archer. Basically, it can be &quot;good press&quot; for us and to get any of the good links and research articles out to the public, over the internet.

Here's my letter to the editor...

Dear editor,

I would like to talk with you about the new &quot;F&quot; word....Fibromyalgia. There has been detrimental and ignorant discussions lately from Radio Announcers, AOL and the NY Times on &quot;if Fibromyalgia Syndrome is real or not&quot;, &quot;are attention-seeking&quot; or is it a &quot;wastebasket diagnosis&quot;. I am writing to tell you it IS real and there are thousands of us suffering needlessly. I have suffered chronic pain and fatigue for 23 years. It started with intense fatigue, a menstrual period lasting 6 weeks and a burning achiness. I was an active, vibrant, athletic, and energetic &quot;type A personality&quot; person. During my teen years, I crashed dieted, going on low carb or cal diets, got addicted to Aspartame, got kidney stones and eventually had to have my gall bladder removed. The sleep deprivation and insomnia came shortly after I worked graveyard shifts and then with having my first child. I tried very hard to fight it as I'm a natural fighter (took Martial Arts and lifted weights). I worked full time, physical jobs despite the agonizing pain. I liken what I go through to being &quot;tin person&quot; due to stiffness or &quot;getting run over by a freight train&quot; when I have pain. The portrayal of people with Fibromyalgia in the media is a joke. We are not just a little &quot;tender&quot;...we are in downright agony, pretty much 24/7. Also, the so-called meds for Fibromyalgia were not originally made for Fibromyalgia..they were made for treating depression and for seizures. The side effects from these drugs are many and almost everyone who tries them, goes off them due to this or has little success.

We are not drug seekers (I'm chemical intolerant and don't take them) or lazy (I have 3 casual relief jobs and 2 kids). Although depression is common with people who suffer chronic pain, we are all not clinically depressed. What works for one person, doesn't necessarily work for another and lord forbid, if someone feels well enough to go out dancing one night, doesn't mean they won't pay for it all the next week and may not be able to go out the next time. Our symptoms range from pain, fatigue, insomnia, IBS, nerve pain, twitching, stiffness, low grade fever, headaches, sensitivities to light, sound, touch and smells, heart palpitations, cognitive brain fog and more.

Thankfully, most doctors are now realizing this is a real illness and doing medical research and clinical studies. I finally have a great doctor in Regina who has helped me tremendously, do osteopathic exercises, take vitamin B12 injections and take natural supplements. There are lab studies and reports that find those of us with Fibromyalgia have lower basal body temperature, lower collagen, substance P, dopamine, Hydroxyproline, Mast Cells, Hyaluronic Acid and Nerve Growth Factor to name a few. Please help us raise awareness to find a cure and ease our suffering.

It's taken me all day to think of what I was going to write and this is what I came up with.

Dear Mr Archer,

Just for a moment if you could realize how much of an impact of what you are about to write regarding Fibromyalgia will impact the development and research to this disease you will then know how important it is to those of us who suffer from it. Fibro is more than what you see acknowledged in the Lyrica commercials.

We have been taught fear from our medical communities &amp; society. Mainly because some dismiss this disease due to the fact that there is no cause/cure for it. We don't look sick they say. This leaves our doctors with the only option to treat our symptoms. Others in the medical communities honestly care about this disease as much as society cares for other invisible diseases such as Autism (another no cause/no cure disease).

It is so hard to sit here and share our experiences as we look down at the scars society has burdened us with. But know that we are stronger than that.

I could sit here and share with you that I suffer each day with pain. Some days are worse than others. But never does it ever fall below feeling like having a non stop flu that would make someone with out Fibro stay home for a couple of days to rest up. The fatigue is like taking NiteQuil or sleep meds and then knowing that you have to stay awake and you struggle through it. We have cognitive problems that mimic someone with mild dementia or Alzheimer's, remembering where we put things, driving home we often miss a few of the turns or we may forget to add the noddles to the boiling water while making dinner. We have other problems that seem to vary from person to person. Such as gait problems that makes us feel as though we have intermittent vertigo, muscle and nerve pain that mimic MS, nausea, weakness, insomnia, chemical sensitivity, we are irritable at a moments notice and suffer from IBS, heart palpitations &amp; anxiety attacks to simply name a few.
Yet all of a sudden these symptoms will just disappear for a day or two. Some of the lucky ones that will last longer and it's called a remission.

We spend on average a year or two going to the doctors repeatedly to finally hear that we have Fibromyalgia. In the meantime, we honestly feel as though we are 102yrs old and are dying of a young age. Then there are those poor souls who can not handle the rejection from the doctors, the chronic pain, the suffering, the loss of quality of life and they sadly end their own lives.

The cost of having Fibro financially is devastating. Many can not hold a job because of the chronic pain and fatigue. And spend anywhere from 1 up to 3 years on average with no income to get SSDI benefits. This is usually only after hiring an attorney to help win their cases. In the meantime, they loose their homes, their jobs, and with some they loose their spouses and family &amp; friends due to not being able to keep up with life. I suppose this is when the depression sets in. The become dependents again, either on society through SSDI benefits or on their families.

So, as you can see, Fibro is more than just what you see in the commercials. And the image supplied by the drug manufacture shows someone who is functioning and enjoying life while the announcer explains the side effects of Lyrica. And as you can see from what I copied from (http://epilepsy.emedtv.com/lyrica/lyrica-side-effects.html) that many of the side effects are exactly what we are suffering from above.

I just wanted to take the time to share what it is like suffering from Fibromyalgia. I hope you are able to obtain the information you need. And thank you for helping us out. It is people like you who will help us find our cure. Which they say is in the makings, possibly in the next 10-20 years. Until then, I will continue to treat my symptoms with physical therapy to strengthen my body and take my supplements as I am intolerant to most medicines. But most importantly, I will continue to live and be a mom, wife, daughter, sister and friend to all of those around me.

Good morning!Well, I slept, for a given value of "sleep". If it's sleep when y ou are in those weird dreams all night. Oh well.***I had a totally cool check-in. Then my Windows 10 udated. Yep. It's been eaten.***Hellebores are a lovely little Eurasian native bunch of flowers. The name is derived from ancient Greek meaning "food that injures". All species in the Hellebore genus are, yes, toxic to...

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